The website features the energy apps that judges and online viewers found to be the top in their class during a recent DOE-sponsored challenge. This winners list provides you, the energy consumer, with a shortcut to finding apps that work.

Leafully helps people break down energy into tangible units, by talking about how many trees it would take to supply the energy used. It’s an intense, but sometimes playful program (cow farts are mentioned).

Melon is aimed more at the commercial building owner, and after providing a clear picture of a building’s energy use, it compares it with others in the Energy Star database through a new Green Button connection. After benchmarking against others, Melon cranks out an Energy Star rating for the building ,which owners can use as a marketing tool.

A better than average rating can make a property more appealing to potential tenants or renters, once they realize that they’ll spend less on utilities at that building.

Homeowners who want to clarify their energy profile also can find robust apps at Apps for Energy.

ZeroFootPrint’s “VELOBill: The Utility Bill of the Future,” which won the People’s Choice Award, breaks out electricity, natural gas and water use into graphic displays that are easy to read. (See video above.)

As with Melon’s app, this info can be compared to larger data pools, so homeowners can find out if their usage is low, medium or high compared to others in their area.

Once you know how you compare, you can zoom in on times when your electricity, gas or water use is out of whack. Then, if you want to make changes, VELOBill will connect you with home contractors who can help you retrofit and reduce your home’s energy consumption.

The apps featured at Apps for Energy are available on various electronic devices, phones, tablets and desktop computers, and some are still in development and will be adding features.

GRN Reports With carbon dioxide emissions creating climate chaos and governments stalemated over solutions, it’s time to look at a simple solution that could save humankind; a solution that’s low-tech...

GRN Reports Climate activists have held scores of protests, marches, sit-ins, rallies, art demos and teach-ins over the last several years since the global scientific community began shooting up emergency...

GRN Reports Feedlots have been the subject of environmental and neighbor wrath for decades, as they cast vast quantities of bacteria-infested manure and smelly animal waste into the surrounding land...

GRN Reports Sodexo, a major supplier of university and hospital cafeterias, is tightening up on its requirements for eggs. The Maryland-based company, which had partially switched to using cage-free eggs,...